VIDEO Russell Sage students show support for sexual abuse survivors during Take Back the Night event

The Sagettes, a Russell Sage College-based a cappella group, perform at the Bush Memorial in Troy during the college's first Take Back the Night event Tuesday. (Jeff Couch/The Record)

TROY -- Sporting teal ribbons in support of sexual assault victims, close to 40 people marched, chanted and spoke about violence against women at Take Back the Night, held for the first time on the Russell Sage College campus Tuesday evening.

Sponsored jointly by the college's CAPES Peer Education Program and the Sexual Assault & Crime Victims Assistance Program for Rensselaer County, the event, which happens across the country and around the globe, is an opportunity for women and men to come together to talk about rape, sexual assault and other sexual violence committed against women, pledging to help survivors and prevent those events from claiming more victims.

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"It's a time for us to listen to other stories and empower ourselves to be able to walk on the streets alone at night and not feel scared," said Karyn Sheeley, a Sage sophomore and member of CAPES. "I feel like being in a women's college, we want to build that kind of bond with each other and just know that we're there for each other."

At Bush Memorial Hall, Lindsey Crusan, a representative of the Victims Assistance Program, shared sobering statistics with those gathered. One in three women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, she said, and one in four women will have that assault occur when they're a college undergraduate.

"That is way, way, way too many," Crusan said.

Take Back the Night was an opportunity, she added, for Sage women to come together and say, "You will not support behavior that leads to sexual assault and rape, and you will all stand together to support survivors in the community."

One of those survivors, a local woman who asked not to be identified, shared the story of her rape, committed by a male acquaintance, which happened when she was a college sophomore.

"I was embarrassed," she admitted to those assembled, talking about the confusion and anger she felt after the incident, and her attempts to hide it from those around her.

With few support options at her small school in Connecticut, the woman sought counsel from the Victims Assistance Program, eventually allowing herself to refer to her rape as an attack instead of "the incident," and thinking of herself as a survivor instead of a victim.

"It doesn't get easier," she said. "I'd be lying if I said I don't wake up every day and remember what happened. But I think that when you have the support system of close friends and family and counselors and people there to help you, it does make the process a little easier."

Before she shared her story indoors, the woman addressed the crowd outside Bush Memorial. Clutching her candle, she urged everyone there to speak out against female violence and the ignorance that perpetuates it, creating a network of knowledge and comfort.

"It is important to say, 'It doesn't matter what I look like, it doesn't matter what I'm wearing, it doesn't matter what time it is, who I'm with, where we are. Nobody goes out looking for harm,'" she said. "Whether you are a survivor or you know somebody who has been sexually assaulted or you just want to be here and raise awareness and support, that's what's important."